


When I Was Your Man

by MiddleTownDreams



Series: Prompts and Drabbles [13]
Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M, Song fic, based off a true story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 05:54:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4613688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiddleTownDreams/pseuds/MiddleTownDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a thing that popped into my head while I was writing and listening to music that took a turn for the angst-y. Based off of When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When I Was Your Man

**Author's Note:**

> Not a prompt, just a drabble

Zoro sighed as he glanced at the empty side of the bed, it was the same bed he’d had for years, it just felt bigger, too big for just him. He sat up and raked his hands through his hair, glaring at the clock. It was three in the goddamn morning and he couldn’t sleep. He’d try and close his eyes and he would see him, and it hurt too damn much to wake up after seeing him like that for him not to be here. He could still smell him in the sheets, no matter how many times he’d washed them they still smelt like nicotine, spices, and his light cologne.  
He couldn’t get rid of him, he was everywhere. Their song would come on their radio, but it never sounded the same, the lyrics had lost their meaning and were only hollow words. The music sounded like a melancholic dirge for a funeral.

  
It was worse when their friends talked about him, it ripped small pieces of him apart, but they didn’t know how much it affected him, they had never known about them. Zoro’s heart broke when they mentioned his name. Hell he couldn’t even think his name without breaking down.

Really he had just been a dumb punk, too young to realize what a relationship was. He should have treated him better, shown him he loved him. Hell maybe Zoro should have bought him flowers. His idiot would have yelled at him and screamed he wasn’t a girl but he would have secretly loved them. He would have put them in a vase on their dining room table and would have kept them there until they all but withered and died. Maybe he should have held his hand more often, even just barely brushed his fingers over the other’s palm in public. His boyfriend had always been one to love human contact, while Zoro had been slightly uncomfortable with it. He should have initiated cuddles more often. He should have spent as much time with him as possible, just him. Should’ve ignored his request that they spend time away from each other so their friends and families didn’t get suspicious and dragged him out on road trips and places far away so they didn’t have to pretend. He should have said he was sick and stayed home with him when the idiot wasn’t feeling well, instead of leaving him home alone. Now he didn’t have the chance.

Zoro groaned and fell back onto the bed, glaring at the ceiling. Faint strains of music drifted through his open window. It was a Saturday in summer, somewhere on the block there was a party. The idiot had loved to dance, Zoro should have taken him to more parties, said yes to going to clubs, and he should have danced with him. He remembered watching his blonde dance alone in the crowd, other people moving towards him. He had moved his body away from them each time, his eyes calling Zoro to come and dance with him. But Zoro never went.  
Zoro growled and slammed his fist into the mattress, both of them should have set aside their pride, their egos and their selfish ways. They should have realized the other man was more important than wounded pride. Zoro cursed himself for selfishly thinking of himself instead of the blonde. It had caused the fighting and all the break ups, and it had caused the end of it all. They couldn’t clean up the mess their relationship had become. Zoro couldn’t do anything to clear the debris of their arguments and falling outs, he couldn’t rebuild the frame of their relationship. It was gone.

Every time he closed his eyes he saw him, and saw the pain that had been in his eyes. It killed him inside to know he had caused the pain. His head filled with all the things he should have done for him, should have done for them as a couple. It hurt him to admit, but he was wrong. He had been so so wrong. It was far too late to apologize for his mistakes and everything he had done, but he still wanted to apologize to the man who had been his sun.  
If he could, he’d want to see him happy with another man, he didn’t want to keep seeing him in pain. He’d want to see him smiling as his boyfriend handed him flowers or a new gift, he wanted to see them holding hands and leaning together. He wanted to know this new man was giving his sun all his time, spending every minutes he could with him, because he deserves it. Zoro wanted to watch as the new man responded to his blonde’s eyes as he silently asked him to join him on the dance floor, because he would know the blonde loved to dance.

Zoro gritted his teeth as the tears formed in his eyes. He wished he could’ve seen his blonde with someone who did all the things he should’ve done. Hell, he wanted another chance to do all the things he should’ve done. But he could never have one.

Their last fight had ended with Sanji leaving their shared flat in a huff. The next morning he had gotten a tearful call from Nami telling him he had been killed in a hit and run. At the funeral he was asked to speak about Sanji. He had struggled to find words to say that had shown the man Sanji was without letting the audience know about them. Sanji would have killed him if he had said anything, he had done everything wrong in their relationship, and he owed it to his blonde to protect him. He couldn’t even cry the way he wanted to. He wanted to lose himself in his grief and cry into the chest of someone who offered him comfort. He couldn’t mourn the way he wanted to, because no one knew. To everyone else, he and the blonde had been roommates and friends.

Growling and furiously scrubbing at his eyes Zoro stood and walked into the kitchen. Sanji didn’t want to tell anyone, not even their close friends or family. So they had dated in secret for years, breaking up and getting back together without anyone knowing. Zoro bit back his sob as he leaned over the sink and gripped the counter so hard his knuckles went white. If he had done all the thing he should have done, Sanji would still be here, he would still be his man, and he would still be alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Basically this is what happens when I try to work on my existing fics while listening to music. When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars came on while I was working on Carved in Stone and this popped into my head. It was just supposed to be a break up fic I swear, but I started thinking about a Facebook post I saw a while ago. There’s an account called Humans of New York (I think they have a tumblr too) basically this person goes around NY and takes pictures of people and posts something the person said or the reason why the admin took the picture.  
> This one post I saw a while back just killed me, there was a picture of a man on a bench and he said something about an old boyfriend. The exact caption from the Humans of New York Facebook page:  
>  _"We were twenty-five and twenty-eight, but we acted like fifteen year olds. Fighting over little things, storming off, breaking up for a week and then getting back together. But developmentally, we were fifteen year olds. We'd been in the closet our whole lives, so we didn't have any practice with relationships. He still hadn't come out to his family and a lot of his friends. We were on one of our 'little breaks' when he died suddenly from a seizure. And nobody in his family or circle knew I existed. It took me four months to find out that he died. I thought he'd just decided never to talk to me again. His family never found out about me. Or him, for that matter." ___  
> I honestly started crying after reading that, I feel so bad for that man and all of a sudden this happened.


End file.
